I am absolutely thrilled you're on board for two reasons: a) because this year is going to be even better than last year, and b) because we're in this together, which means you've got a huge advantage over millions of other investors who are trying to "go it alone."

Speaking of which, I want to jump right in today with three simple things that will help you know exactly what to buy, what to sell, and how to protect your money this year.

And, of course, beyond…

Three Maxims for 2017

Millions of investors are worried about market conditions right now and that's totally understandable given the rocket ride we've enjoyed since November 8 when Donald Trump won the most contentious and acerbic presidential election in history.

The "experts," including Nobel Prize-winning New York Times columnist Dr. Paul Krugman, MIT economist Simon Johnson, and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, among others, almost gleefully called for a massive decline. But I told you that conditions were ripe for a "rip your face off rally" should "The Donald" win. And, more importantly, that you had to be "in" to win.

You know how that story ended given that all the major averages ripped higher in a post-election melt-up that continued right out of the gate Monday in early trading before some of the froth came off.

More importantly, though, so does your bank account if you've been following along with dozens of Total Wealth recommendations that powered up, including Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) and Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO), just to name a few.

What's next?

The list of things that could derail markets this year is long and hardly distinguished. There's Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's aspirations to contend with. China's moves in the Far East. Another E.U. crisis brewing… the Fed and its rate hikes… ISIS. None of these things is going away any time soon.

That means the key to profits is in flipping that equation around.

You can't let doom, gloom, and indecision trip you up.

Instead what you want to do is focus on opportunities worth hundreds of millions of dollars that will be created when other investors who are not part of the Total Wealth Family get tripped up.

The way I see it, 2017 will be a great year to focus on basics and on three themes that we'll come back to repeatedly because they're so important given current market conditions.

First, buy cheap.

Most investors chase performance, which is why this time of year you can open up just about any mainstream investment rag, magazine, or Internet site and see countless stories about "top performers," the "best-ranked ETFs and mutual funds," or even the "best-performing asset classes."

It's a cycle we've talked about many times. Just last year, for example, there was oil, then tech, then social media, then IPOs, then top stocks for a Hillary presidency, and then, of course, stocks to buy…

Keith Fitz-Gerald has been the Chief Investment Strategist for the Money Morning team since 2007. He's a seasoned market analyst with decades of experience, and a highly accurate track record. Keith regularly travels the world in search of investment opportunities others don't yet see or understand. In addition to heading The Money Map Report, Keith runs High Velocity Profits, which aims to get in, target gains, and get out clean. In his weekly Total Wealth, Keith has broken down his 30-plus years of success into three parts: Trends, Risk Assessment, and Tactics – meaning the exact techniques for making money. Sign up is free at totalwealthresearch.com.

Gold and silver are essential "crisis insurance" for any portfolio. Here's everything you need to know about the best ways to buy bars, coins, affordable alternatives, and more. Enter your email below to get the report.

Money Morning gives you access to a team of ten market experts with more than 250 years of combined investing experience – for free. Our experts – who have appeared on FOXBusiness, CNBC, NPR, and BloombergTV – deliver daily investing tips and stock picks, provide analysis with actions to take, and answer your biggest market questions. Our goal is to help our millions of e-newsletter subscribers and Moneymorning.com visitors become smarter, more confident investors.